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We Have a Dream!

by Maldivian students in Malaysia - 19th October 2004

Twenty seven years ago, a "great" Maldivian took the oath as the president of Maldives. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to thousands of Maldivians who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But twenty seven years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Maldivians are still not free.

Twenty seven years later, the lives of the Maldivians are still sadly crippled by the manacles of torture and the chains of discrimination. Twenty seven years later, the Maldivians live on a lonely nation of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. Twenty seven years later, the Maldivians are still languishing in the corners of their own society and find their selves like slaves in their own land.

So we have come today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to cash a check. When the members of the parliament of our republic are going to write the magnificent words of the Constitution and the reform agenda, they were signing a promissory note to which every Maldivian was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all Maldivians would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that our leaders has avoided this promissory note insofar as her all citizens are concerned. Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, our leaders have given their people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. We refuse to believe that this nation belong to just one family.

So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to remind Maldivians of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and apprehensive valley of torture and ignorance to the sunlit path of justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all the Maldivian children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of brutal dictatorship to the solid rock of democracy.

It would be fatal for Gayyoom's regime to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Maldivians. This sweltering summer of the Maldivians legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Black Friday is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Maldivians needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual under this tyranny. There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in Maldives until the people are granted their basic rights.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that we must say to our people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and torture. Let us fear no one, but Allah.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence just the way we showed on 13th of August. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvellous national security service which has engulfed the Maldivian community must not lead us to distrust of all, for many of our soldiers have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of public rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our brothers and sisters who are behind bars and being tortured under Gayyoom's brutal regime find justice. We cannot be satisfied as long as we are free from this brutality and suppression. We can never be satisfied as long as we are free to vote on our own will and we will not be forced by the island chiefs to vote dictators. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

We are not unmindful that some of us have come out of great trials and evils. Some of us have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of us have come from areas where our quest for freedom left us battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. We have been the veterans of creative suffering. We will continue to work with the faith that unjust suffering is redemptive.

Go to HA. Baarah, go to GA. Dhiyadhoo, go to the villages of our rural islands, knowing that somehow this worrying situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. We say today that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, we still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Maldivian dream.

We have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that our nation belongs to all of us. We have a dream that one day our nation will be safe place to live without our minds being continuously haunted by the fear and terror of this aggression. We have a dream that one day our national wealth, a gigantic quantity, spend vigorously on the luxurious living of this dictatorship, will be distributed evenly among each Maldivian. We have a dream that one day the destitute in the capital, just behind the multi-million dollar Palace of their President will be able to feed their hunger. We have a dream that our children will one day live in a nation where they will not be exposed to torture, sexual harassments and drugs. We have a dream today.

We have a dream that one day the islands of Maldives, whose citizens are suffering from malnutrition and poverty, will be transformed into a situation where we will be able to eat healthy food and will be able to get adequate medical facilities. We have a dream today. We have a dream that one day every Maldivian will be able to express their views openly and will be able to get enough wages to meet their basic needs. This is our hope. This is the faith with which we are going to struggle and show our unity. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of freedom. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every home, from every island and every atoll, we will be able to speed up that day when all of the Maldivians, poor and rich will be able to join hands and sing in the words, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank Allah, we are free at last!"

(Note: The above article is an inspiration and an alteration of the very famous and effective speech given by the great American hero Martin Luther King on August 28, 1963. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm)

In 1950's America, the equality of man envisioned by the Declaration of Independence was far from a reality. People of color, blacks, Hispanics, Orientals, were discriminated against in many ways, both overt and covert. The 1950's were a turbulent time in America, when racial barriers began to come down due to Supreme Court decisions, like Brown v. Board of Education; and due to an increase in the activism of blacks, fighting for equal rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, was a driving force in the push for racial equality in the 1950's and the 1960's. In 1963, King and his staff focused on Birmingham, Alabama. They marched and protested non-violently, raising the ire of local officials who sicced water cannon and police dogs on the marchers, whose ranks included teenagers and children. The bad publicity and break-down of business forced the white leaders of Birmingham to concede to some anti-segregation demands.

Thrust into the national spotlight in Birmingham, where he was arrested and jailed, King organized a massive march on Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he evoked the name of Lincoln in his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Text from http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html